Today, Friday, June 26th is the UN’s International Day Against Torture. I had originally planned to write a different type of post for today, but as the news events unfold according to their own narrative, so do blog posts. The news last week about Dan Froomkin’s contract being canceled was at once a shock, yet not really a suprise. The only real surprise was that he had lasted at that particular paper as long as he had.

Along with so many other well-wishers, I sincerely hope that Dan Froomkin lands in a better place where we can all gather once again– and with far less difficulty in finding his URL– to read his posts and add our own comments.

As I was gathering resources, links and quotes for this post, it occurred to me that one of the dangers of allowing Dan Froomkin to continue to write his daily blog about the White House and the Administration, was that on one issue at least– Torture– there were beginning to be other voices joining in the Greek chorus against it. Dan Froomkin, alone, a voice in the wilderness, a crazy Lear, is one thing. But, Dan Froomkin as one lead voice among an increasing number of voices, and one with a large following of readers, too… well, that is an entirely different matter.

To The Powers That Be. Just to be clear, I refer to TPTB who meet in the executive offices and conference rooms of several of our major corporations, corporations which happen to own media enterprises, among other things, as well as plants that manufacture instruments of war fare and other accessories for the MIC.

As I said to some friends the other day… The world right now appears to be all upside down. Those who were completely wrong about the reasons or justifications for invading Iraq are still all over television’s network news and the op-ed pages of those major newspapers that still exist… while those who were correct about nearly all of those things have lost jobs, contracts, speaking engagements and, sometimes, entire careers.

I’m thinking at the moment of Dan Froomkin, who, for so many of us, has provided a strong voice and clear space for Sanity. Last week, we learned that his contract as a free-lance blogger will not be renewed. Others might have hung up the towel at such news; however, Froomkin continues to post in his usual BS-calling manner and he does not appear to be pulling any punches. Why should he? What are they going to do now… fire him?!

Robert Scheer, a seasoned, old-school journalist, also comes to mind. He was replaced at the LA Times by a neocon and has since founded an online news magazine, Truthdig.com, in which he is not embarrassed to feature liberal writers, or to allow them to "drill beneath the headlines."

Ashleigh Banfield was fired by NBC for criticizing the legacy media’s Iraq coverage. Banfield, formerly an Emmy-award winning journalist, now works for what once was Court TV. I intend no criticism of Ms. Banfield, who I am sure keeps her own standards as she did before. In fact, I have noticed how many more women than men have been whistleblowers in the past decade, and Banfield could certainly be considered one of that number. But one must really wonder what TPTB think they are accomplishing.

Who doesn’t remember the case of Phil Donahue? Donahue, over several decades, revolutionized the daytime talk show. Anyone with such a show now, owes him a debt of thanks. Donahue returned to television with a primetime program, "Donahue," after the 9/11 attack on the WTC and before the real run-up to the invasion of Iraq was being "openly" implemented. MSNBC cited low viewership when they abruptly canceled his show (much as that DC paper implied something similar when they decided not to renew Froomkin). Although Donahue did not have nearly the ratings of his competition at Fox, he did have the highest-rated show at MSNBC at that time. Curious, that a network would cancel its highest-rated show… Since then, Donahue, with Ellen Spiro, has produced a feature-length documentary, "Body of War," which tells the story of a soldier, Tomas Young, who signed up in order to go to Afghanistan, but was instead sent to Iraq, and his transformation from soldier into a dedicated advocate against the war. Despite his signficant injuries, Young has spent many hours talking to, and comforting other vets and their family members.

We could doubtless add many more names… but I would like to focus just a bit more now on Dan Froomkin and the astonishing amount of work he has published just on the issue of Torture. Naturally, I do not mean to imply that he has neglected other important issues, for he has not. Yet, neither has he avoided those touchy, awful, gory issues that others would have us pretend do not exist. Chief among them, I must count Torture, since I know from experience, that readers, if they read such posts at all, prefer not to comment on them. However, Froomkin knew and clearly still knows that such posts, essays, and articles must be a part of the public record; however few the voices, they must still speak up. And he did. With regularity. Yet… a larger chorus would be better.

For now, one may still search Froomkin’s blog archives by topic, and his blog’s search results for Torture are prodigious.

Back in April I posted a few paragraphs and a video clip featuring Shep Smith, when he expressed his horror and disbelief: "This is America! We don’t torture!" I predicted then that a rude epiphany awaited Mr. Smith, and as I thought about it more, I renamed this blog, because I realized that a rude epiphany actually awaits all of us, particularly (though not solely), because Torture has been committed in all of our names. And, because I grew up in a military family, I take such things personally. Those of us who have been military brats, especially of the enlisted ranks, came to understand as we matured that the many sacrifices of and during our childhoods were for what was once the Greater Good. What we have now is not that Greater Good. Rather, the world is entirely upside-down, and we, i.e., the Empire that acts in our names is responsible for much of the upside-downness.

Clearly there is a narrative pattern afoot, one that cares not one whit for the benefits of a free press in a democracy, just as it clearly does not truly care for democracy, since that would be so much more inconvenient than what they have so carefully installed in its place… just as those Geneva Conventions, and the other international treaties against torture and inhumane treatment, proved so inconvenient to the previous administration, and now– some of us fear– to the current administration, as well.

That a candidate who campaigned on a platform of being against invading Iraq, against secrecy in government, and for Transparency in the most uncompromising language possible, could now be against holding accountable those who have committed war crimes in our names is beyond astonishing. My vocabulary is at a loss…

The antidote: Art James, aka Bebop-o, who blends poetry and prose in a manner most sublime…

* * * * *

Many friends and acquaintances are also posting about this day’s advocacy against Torture, and some have begun even earlier. One day did not seem like enough time, and that was before the hiking scandal and the deaths of Farrah and Michael…

So, I am including here some links to other blogs and resources that you may find useful, should you decide to do a bit of research on your own, or should you wish a few facts with which to persuade a friend or relative that we are not yet truly on that proper path.

First, a detailed timeline, from two commenters in Glenn Greenwald’s voluminous comment pages, Harpie and Jebbie. There is nothing like a careful and meticulous timeline for resolving disputes, and they have provided us with one.

Ondelette, who is more often to be found in Greenwald’s comment threads, also has a blog, Humanity Against Crimes, which is dedicated to the torture issue. He asked Barry Eisler to write something for it, and you’ll find Eisler’s piece here, as well as numerous other resources that ondelette has so painstakingly collected and posted in his sidebar.

Jim White, who splits his time among Greenwald, FDL, and Oxdown, has a new post up, too at his Oxdown diary, "Widespread or Systematic Attack Against Any Civilian Population," in which he discusses a few finer points that may have some bearing on the possibility of accountability. There is no one better at outlining both the facts and the nuances of a case.

Dorothy Parker may no longer be with us, but her spirit lives on in the blog posts and comments (at Greenwald’s) of cocktailhag, one of my favorite spatula wielders when it comes to turning a phrase. Though I could not find a post strictly dedicated to Torture at cocktailhag’s blog, one will find torture references laced with disgust interleaved throughout the blog. [Here's one: "Send in the bugs."] [And another... an email exchange with Helen Thomas.]

[One of the things I love most about blogging is that it's a bit like having your own wiki, at least it is if you allow comments.] So, I am inserting here another link provided by Dirigo, who also comments at Greenwald’s blog (one of the smartest comment sections around). Dirigo has thoughtfully provided a link with some background on "Francis Lieber, author of the Lieber Code, which was issued as a military order by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863." The Lieber Code was an early document of instructions for the conduct of soldiers in war time, that also provided the legal basis for our own treatment of prisoners of war, as well as international codes which followed.

Pat Davis has just posted today her "Open Letter to Those We HaveTortured," in which she offers her own personal apology and regrets. At the end of her post, Pat also requests that others join her in writing letters to be delivered to those former detainees whose whereabouts are known to express our remorse, as well as to apply some grassroots level pressure to the Obama Administration.

And I began posting last week, too, with some poems. Generally, I don’t write political poems, for I think they should be poems first and if there is something political, too, then that must come second. However, in both cases, they just came pouring out, and I had only to catch them in that act, and then polish them a bit. As works in progress, they may require a bit more polishing yet.

Although I cannot call Glenn Greenwald an actual friend, I confess to being a fan of his blog since before he arrived at Salon. There are too many links to single any out. In fact, he has written about torture and its related topics frequently during the past weeks and months.

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